In the USA there are 38 retentionist states (of which...

In the USA there are 38 retentionist states (of which at least 35 have very active death penalty dockets), 11 circuits with many federal district courts in each circuit all handling death penalty cases, all making law, some in conflict with others.
Federal law provides for 60 death-qualifiable offences, and federal military law also provides for capital punishment. U.S. criminal procedure divides a trial for murder (or any other capital offense) in two separate stages.
During the first stage a popular jury decides if the accused is guilty or innocent, and during the second the same jury, the judge or a group of 3 judges (depending on the state) weigh the mitigating and aggravating circumstances and decide on the punishment. Appeals are also divided into two phases: appeals concerning the guilt or innocence of the accused, and those that deal with the degree of punishment.
The fact that the laws of an individual state provide life without parole, that is, without the possibility of the prisoner ever being freed, is considered a positive factor, because it makes the granting of clemency that commutes a death penalty to life without parole more probable.
By the end of the year 2001, 62 local governments in the USA had passed resolutions supporting a moratorium on executions in their state.